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IfR

Besides internal meetings, we will offer a two-day public workshop on geographies of wealth. On 15 December, we will celebrate the public launch of "Geographies of Wealth", our new platform for critical research on territorial power. Details to follow.

From 17 to 18 March 2026, the symposium "Perspectives on Wealth 2026" brought together Wealth & Space and 14 more projects funded by the Volkswagen Stiftung. At Schloss Herrenhausen, Hannover, we presented preliminary research findings from Chile, Brazil and Mexico.

The meeting in Mérida, held in November 2025, provided an opportunity to learn about current research topics on the Yucatán Peninsula, as well as to make significant progress on the Observatory of the Geography of Wealth. The meeting consisted of four days of intensive dialogue, academic work and a specialized website workshop. A central component of the meeting was a public conversatory held in Mérida, which addressed the urgent need for a participatory platform to document the social and environmental consequences of extractive development models.

The second field trip took PhD researchers, postdoctoral scholars, and principal investigators through northern and central Quintana Roo and the surroundings of Mérida. The visits offered important insights on territorial conflicts, extractive development, and local resistance movements. Participants also visited the industrial corridor of Hunucmá and the coastal town of Sisal, where local activists discussed the impacts of industrial production, tourism-driven real estate expansion, and the privatization of water resources. The field trip highlighted both the pressures of extractive development and ongoing community efforts to defend territory, water, and alternative models of Buen Vivir.